Sensitive documents left behind at American mission in Libya
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Sensitive documents left behind at American mission in
Libya
By: Michael Birnbaum, The Washington Post
BENGHAZI, Libya - More than three weeks after attacks in this
city killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans,
sensitive documents remained only loosely secured in the remains of
the U.S. mission here on Wednesday, offering visitors easy access
to delicate details about American operations in Libya.
Documents detailing weapons collection efforts, emergency
evacuation protocols, the full internal itinerary of Ambassador J.
Christopher Stevens's trip and the personnel records of Libyans who
were contracted to secure the mission were among the items
scattered across the floors of the looted compound when a
Washington Post reporter and a translator visited Wednesday.
Although the gates to the compound were locked several days
after the attacks, looters and curiosity-seekers were free to roam
in the initial chaotic aftermath, and many documents may already
have disappeared.
No government-provided security forces are guarding the
compound, and Libyan investigators have visited just once,
according to a member of the family who owns the compound and who
allowed the journalists to enter Wednesday.
Two private security guards paid for by the compound's Libyan
owner are the only people watching over the sprawling site, which
is composed of two adjoining villa complexes and protected in some
places by a wall only eight feet high.
"Securing the site has obviously been a challenge," said Mark
Toner, deputy spokesman at the State Department, in response to
questions about conditions at the Benghazi compound. "We had
to evacuate all U.S. government personnel the night of the
attack. After the attack, we requested help securing the
site, and we continue to work with the Libyan government on this
front."
State Department officials were provided with copies of some of
the documents found at the site. They did not request that the
documents be withheld from publication.
None of the documents were marked classified, but this is not
the first time that sensitive documents have been found by
journalists in the charred wreckage of the compound. CNN discovered
a copy of the ambassador's journal last month and broadcast details
from it, drawing an angry response from the State Department.
Unlike the journal, all of the documents seen by The Post were
official.
At least one document found amid the clutter indicates that
Americans at the mission were discussing the possibility of an
attack in early September, just two days before the assault took
place. The document is a memorandum dated Sept. 9 from the U.S.
mission's security office to the 17th February Martyrs Brigade, the
Libyan-government-sanctioned militia that was guarding the
compound, making plans for a "quick reaction force," or QRF, that
would provide security.
"In the event of an attack on the U.S. Mission," the document
states, "QRF will request additional support from the 17th February
Martyrs Brigade."
Other documents detail - with names, photographs, phone numbers
and other personal information - the Libyans contracted to provide
security for the mission from a British-based private firm. Some of
those Libyans say they now fear for their lives, and the State
Department has said it shares concerns about their safety.
The discovery of the documents coincides with increasing
pressure on the Obama administration to provide a full accounting
of security at the mission prior to the attack, as well as an
explanation for the slow pace of the investigation that has
followed the Sept. 11 assault.
On Tuesday, two House Republicans sent a letter to Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton demanding more information about the
incident. The letter from Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz
(Utah) said Libyans working as private security personnel at the
compound were warned by family members in the weeks before the
attacks to quit their jobs because of rumors of an impending
attack. The congressmen did not say where they had received the
information.
Concerns about safety in Benghazi have confined a team of FBI
investigators to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, which is hundreds of
miles away, and local security officials say they cannot guarantee
that Americans would be safe here.
But many of the Libyan contractors, as well as some members of
the brigade once tasked with guarding the compound, say they have
not been contacted by the Libyan or American governments about
their own safety concerns. Some say they have tried to contact the
Americans but have not received a response.
The Blue Mountain contractors were intended to complement the
armed members of the militia. Both groups were present at the
mission on the night of Sept. 11.
In the unsigned memorandum from the U.S. mission to the militia,
which appears to be a draft, guards "are required to acquire and
maintain their own weapons and ammunition," the document
states.
The security presence appears to have been bare-bones, with
three or more members on the compound any time the "principal
officer" was present - either the head of the mission or the
ambassador.
When the principal officer was not present, a single militia
member was instructed to be at the front gate between 8 a.m. and
midnight. Between midnight and 8 a.m., one militia member was
scheduled to be on roving patrol. The militia members were supposed
to work a minimum of eight hours a day and were to be paid a
stipend of about $28 a day. They were housed on the compound.
The itinerary of Stevens's trip to Benghazi includes a near-full
accounting of his planned movements during what was supposed to be
a visit that lasted from Sept. 10 until Sept. 15. It includes names
and phone numbers of Libyans who scheduled were to meet with him.
Some of those Libyans have not made their contact with Stevens
public and could be at risk if it were publicly known.